The SEARCH program has existed at Rhodes College, in one form or another, since 1946. This chronologically oriented, three-semester “Great Books” interdisciplinary humanities sequence introduces students to the Western (and some non-Western) canon and prepares them for the academic rigor of college courses. It aims to develop students’ critical reading, writing, and thinking skills, and provide a common experience that builds intellectual community across campus (about forty percent of incoming freshmen usually enroll). While readings come from many disciplines in the humanities, philosophy and a philosophically-informed hermeneutic is crucial to this task. Aided by a grant from the Teagle Foundation, SEARCH is developing a contrapuntal model for our syllabi, putting core texts in dialogue with transformative contemporary works. Pairing canonical texts with contemporary classics strives to give voice to those marginalized or excluded from the so-called “great conversation” of European Enlightenment tradition.
For example, I pair Sophocles’ Antigone with Martin Luther King Jr.’s “Letter from a Birmingham Jail.” In the final installment of the Oedipal cycle, Antigone (Oedipus’ daughter) decides to bury her brother, thereby disobeying an order by Creon, ruler of Thebes. She continues with her plan, knowing full well that the punishment is death, since she believes that her duty to her brother (funeral rites being extremely important in ancient Greek culture) overrides her duty to follow the law. Similarly, King distinguishes between a just and an unjust law. Writing in the context of the Civil Rights movement, he argues that merely following the law may be insufficient—circumstances sometimes require us to break unjust laws through civil disobedience. Reading these texts together requires students to think about the difference between legality and morality, or between positive and natural law. Further, it puts into question the nature and/or possibility of justice. Ultimately, it invites students to reflect on their own values and their origins.
Today, these conversations couldn’t be more important. We keep hearing that the humanities are in crisis, but the humanities give us the tools to understand our (social/political/economic) world and speak truth to power. Like Antigone and King, we find ourselves facing the political rhetoric of “law and order” and asking ourselves what it means to act justly or morally. Beyond questions of what is politically expedient, or strategically prudent, we must also understand the ‘why’ that motivates our political action. Without this ‘why’ we risk falling short of our goals or ending up in a different place altogether. The real crisis concerning the humanities is that our society keeps turning away from the tools that the humanities provide. Studying the humanities, and philosophy more specifically, can literally change your life. It certainly has changed mine—as an alumnus of the SEARCH program, I know how transformational the liberal arts can be. In a climate of uncertainty, these texts and ideas can scaffold why and how we shape our political landscape for generations to come.
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Benjamin E. Curtis
Dr. Benjamin E. Curtis is a Visiting Assistant Professor of Interdisciplinary Humanities at Rhodes College in Memphis, TN. He received his Ph.D. in philosophy from the University of Memphis, and his M.A. from the École Normale Supérieure in Paris, France. His research focuses on social/political philosophy in the Continental tradition, especially Critical Theory.
